In November 2025, participants of OriginAL Cohort 8 traveled to Manastir, to visit the Museum of the Albanian Alphabet, widely known as the Shtepia e Alfabetit.
For many participants, this was an encounter with one of the moments that helped shape Albanian identity across regions, religions, and generations… Inside this building, history feels close. The rooms hold the memory of the Congress of Manastir of 1908, where Albanian intellectuals gathered to unify the Albanian alphabet and establish a common written system for the language. What may seem today like a technical decision was, at the time, a profound act of national and cultural unity.
Participants moved through the museum listening to stories about the delegates, the debates, and the importance of language in preserving identity. For diaspora youth who often navigate multiple languages in daily life, the visit carried a particular emotional weight.
Many reflected on how language connects them to family, memory, and belonging, even when distance has shaped their upbringing differently. Some spoke about hearing Albanian at home but never learning to write it fluently. Others shared how certain words or expressions still carry emotional meaning no matter where they live.
The visit created space to think about Albanian identity not as something fixed, but as something continuously protected and rebuilt across generations.
Manastir itself added another layer to the experience. Walking through the city, participants encountered a place shaped by multiple cultures, histories, and political transformations. The city became a reminder that Albanian history has always extended beyond modern borders and that understanding the Albanian experience also means understanding the wider region and its complexity.
For OriginAL Cohort 8, the journey to North Macedonia marked an important expansion of the program’s map and mission. By including Manastir and other locations outside Kosova and Albania, OriginAL continued building a fuller understanding of Albanian heritage across all homeland spaces.
The visit to the House of the Alphabet left participants with more than historical knowledge. It offered perspective on the power of language, the responsibility of cultural continuity, and the generations of people who worked to preserve a shared identity under difficult circumstances.
For many in the group, it became one of the most meaningful moments of the entire journey.
Because sometimes identity begins with something as simple, and as powerful, as learning the story behind the letters we use every day.
